


Wrath of Missingno

by Kyarorain



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: General, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-17
Updated: 2009-11-17
Packaged: 2017-10-06 00:50:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kyarorain/pseuds/Kyarorain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ash never could have imagined that one single Pokémon was capable of turning the whole world upside down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **Wrath of Missingno**

**Wrath of Missingno**

* * *

Time for a totally random fic, starring Missingno. Yay! Missingno should have had its own episode... who cares if it's just a glitch? It's totally a real Pokémon. Yes. It is. By the way, I love being in denial. Pluto is a planet, you know.

Uh, anyway, Pokémon is owned by Nintendo and Game Freak.

* * *

"Ash, get down from that tree!" Brock exclaimed, looking up at the very tall tree. He could barely even see the very top of it. Ash was currently weaving his way through the branches and ascending with the agility of an Aipom, not caring about the fact the tree was incredibly high and falling out of it was a potential cause of death. The Pokémon breeder hit his head and sighed in disgust. "I knew it was a bad idea for him to be eating all those sweets."

"But they were really good sweets!" May chirped in a cheerful voice, bouncing over to Brock with a big grin spread across her face. "Hey, do we have any of that candy left? I would really like to eat some more." She stuck her bottom lip out in a slight pout.

"Sorry, I gave mine to Ash." Brock was clearly regretting his decision. "Maybe Max still has some left." He looked at the younger member of the group, who was watching Ash climb the tree with a fascinated expression.

"May ate those too." Max crossed his arms over his chest, continuing to stare at the tree. "Has Ash gone crazy or something? Like there would be a Mew in the tree."

"I'm coming, Mew!" Ash shouted from the top of the tree. "Wait for me! Hey, wait, where are you going?"

"Maybe the candy is causing him to hallucinate," Brock said worriedly. "May, you're not seeing anything strange, are you?"

"No, I don't think so." May paused, raising her head to look at the sky. She tilted her head, her brow creasing in puzzlement. "Hey, I didn't know that clouds could be purple. Look, it's a purple cloud!" She pointed frantically at the sky. "Can you see it, Brock?"

Brock was pretty sure that there were no purple clouds in the sky but he looked anyway. Of course, there weren't any purple clouds to be seen. "There must have been something strange about that candy." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, there might have been something odd about the couple who gave us all that candy."

"Something odd? What do you mean?" Max asked. "I thought they were just a nice old couple."

"An old couple with extraordinarily youthful skin, as a matter of fact, and there was something rather familiar about their hairstyles," Brock said. "Or maybe I'm just imagining things. Team Rocket has tricked us with their disguises so many times so it's no wonder I'm feeling a bit suspicious."

"Yeah, I think you must be." Max grinned. "There's no way Team Rocket would do something so nice like giving us candy. Ash and May must just be having some really impressive sugar highs, that's all." He looked up at the top of the tree again. "Is Ash ever going to come down?" It seemed Ash was still climbing up the branches in pursuit of the imaginary Mew.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu cried out in an anxious voice, staring up at the tree branches after his trainer with a worried look on his yellow face.

Suddenly, Ash's foot slipped on one of the branches and he pitched backwards, his arms flailing uselessly through the air as he started to plummet toward the ground. All he could do was scream in terror as he hurtled downward past branch after branch, unable to grab a single one and stop his descent. The young Pokémon trainer was about to hit the ground when a voice suddenly called out "Gardevoir, use Confusion!"

A soft blue light surrounded Ash's body and his descent began to slow, allowing him to land safely on the ground. He sighed in relief. "Wow, that sure was a close one, wasn't it?" Ash grinned and rubbed the back of his head, not seeming bothered in the least by his near death situation. He had been in plenty of them anyway, so what was one more?

"Who did that?" Max wondered out loud, turning around to see a generic looking man approach, a Gardevoir at his side. "Oh boy, here comes the Character of the Day."

"Are you alright?" the Character of the Day asked, regarding Ash with a mildly concerned look on his face. "It was a good thing I just happened to be there with my Gardevoir, that's for sure. What were you thinking, climbing that dangerously tall tree?"

"There was a Mew up there and it got away." Ash stood up and sighed, throwing a forlorn look at the tree. "I just wanted to get a closer look at it."

"Never mind, Ash!" May threw an arm over his shoulders and pointed at the sky again. "Look, there's a purple cloud! See?"

"I'm sorry," Brock spoke in a weary tone. "These two here just ate a lot of candy and it seems to have had an adverse effect on them. I just hope it wears off soon. Anyway, thank you for saving Ash."

"Oh, it was nothing really." The man waved a hand dismissively. "I couldn't ignore someone who was in danger." Instead of moving on and forgetting he had ever met these crazy people in the first place, he of course decided to introduce himself instead as if anybody actually cared who he was. "My name is Alexander Brian Charles Derek Edgar Francis Gordon Harold Ian Johnathan Kenneth Lucas Matthew Nicholas Oliver Percival Quentin Richard Stephen Thomas Udell Victor William Xavier Yves Zachary Featherstonehaugh."

Brock and Max stared at him in bewilderment, wondering if he was actually a crazy man playing some kind of bizarre joke on them. Ash and May didn't even seem to notice that he had introduced himself, as they were currently engrossed in a vicious thumb wrestling war.

"My goodness, you have a long name," Max commented, slowly blinking.

"Is that really your name?" Brock asked, one eyebrow raised so high that it almost disappeared beneath his hair.

"Yes, I know it is rather unusual and my parents were probably intent on making me suffer for the rest of my life," said Alexander Brian Charles Derek Edgar Francis Gordon Harold Ian Johnathan Kenneth Lucas Matthew Nicholas Oliver Percival Quentin Richard Stephen Thomas Udell Victor William Xavier Yves Zachary Featherstonehaugh. "Please, just call me Xander. That is the name I usually go by."

"So why didn't you just introduce yourself as Xander in the first place then?" Max frowned.

"Woohoo! I won!" Ash suddenly cheered. "I'm the best at thumb war!"

"Oh, yeah? I'll beat you this time!" May declared.

"One, two, three, four, I declare a thumb war!" the two exclaimed, engaging in another game of frantic thumb wrestling.

"Oh, for Mew's sake." Brock turned around to face Ash and May with a look of extreme disapproval. "Can't you see that the Character of the Day is demanding our complete and total attention here?"

Ash and May suddenly stopped what they were doing, staring up at Brock with wide, shocked eyes. Both of them seemed to be getting dangerously close to tears.

"You're a meanie!" Ash declared.

"Yeah, we don't want to hang around with meanies," May stated.

Brock's jaw dropped in astonishment as Ash and May immediately got to their feet and ran off. "Hey, where do you think you're going? Okay, I'm sorry I'm scolded you! Now please come back here..." However, Ash and May just ignored him, running until they were well out of earshot.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu took off after Ash.

"Well, that candy really had a strange effect, didn't it?" Max adjusted his glasses, blinking slowly.

* * *

"Do you think this plan really is going to work, Jessie?" James asked the other human member of the Team Rocket trio. They were currently sneaking around in search of the wayward twerps. "I don't understand how giving them candy is going to get us Pikachu."

"It's really simple. The candy has a dangerously high content of sugar." Jessie smiled deviously, rubbing her hands together. "The twerps will become so hyper after taking all that candy that they won't be able to focus and stealing Pikachu will be a piece of cake."

"It's a sweet and simple plan. It couldn't possibly fail." Meowth briefly paused to chuckle at his pun. "It should be worth the headaches we got making all that candy. I never want to see the inside of a sugar factory again."

"Hmm, I don't know." James frowned. "We've never even seen the twerps on a sugar high before. That twerp with the Pikachu used to be a pretty hyper kid at times and he still managed to defeat us easily enough."

"It's going to work," Jessie said slowly, looming in front of James with a dangerously psychotic smile. "Okay?"

James smiled awkwardly, a bead of sweat rolling down his head. "Okay," he said in a half whimper. "You're right, Jessie. The plan's absolutely perfect."

"Hey, twerps have been spotted!" Meowth exclaimed, looking over a bush. Jessie and James rushed to look, seeing Brock, Max and an unfamiliar man standing there. "And a Character of the Day too. How do they manage to keep finding these people?"

"That's strange. There are only two twerps there and they don't look hyper," James observed. "Pikachu's not there either."

"I see." Jessie grinned conspirationally. "The other twerps must have got a crazy sugar high because they ate so much of the candy and they ran off. Pikachu of course faithfully followed its trainer. That means we've got to find them."

The Team Rocket trio hurried away from the bush, chuckling under their breath as they went to retrieve their balloon. It was time to hunt down some sugar crazed twerps.

* * *

Ash and May had managed to get over being scolded, but they weren't planning to return any time soon. Poor Pikachu was still chasing them while they engaged in a furious race for some reason. The two of them were so engrossed in their frantic race that they failed to notice the small slope in front of them. Pikachu stopped and blinked in bewilderment as Ash and May suddenly disappeared, screaming as they did so. The mouse Pokémon approached the edge of the slope, peering down to see Ash and May lying on the ground and groaning.

"Who put that stupid slope there?" Ash grumbled, sitting up and rubbing his body where he had hit the ground.

"Hey, look!" May pointed toward a tall building in the distance, atop a rocky cliff. The only way to reach the building was across a suspension bridge. "I wonder what that building is supposed to be?"

"Why don't we go and check it out?" Ash suggested enthusiastically. "Maybe we'll find something exciting."

"Yay! I like exciting stuff!" May jumped up to her feet. "Let's go!" She punched the air.

"Pikapi," Pikachu groaned, his ears lowering. He sighed and a mushroom shaped cloud came out of his mouth. The reluctant electric Pokémon cautiously slid down the slope and hurried after Ash, who was already heading toward the bridge.

Ash and May approached the bridge, completely ignoring the sign that said **Danger- Do Not Enter**. Ash had completely forgotten that suspension bridges always broke, but that fact hadn't stopped him from crossing suspension bridges before anyway. This bridge could always be one of those extremely rare suspension bridges that didn't break. The people who worked on building and maintaining suspension bridges were most likely homicidal maniacs who wanted people to die or they really sucked at their job.

Amazingly, when Ash, May and Pikachu crossed the bridge, it didn't break, possibly because that would have been a hindrance to the story. They walked up to the tall building, seeing a single door leading inside. Ash reached out and pushed the handle on the door, finding that it opened.

"Looks like someone forgot to lock the door." May peered into the gloom. "It's kinda dark."

"I guess that means there's nobody here. Well, that's good. We don't have to worry about getting caught." Ash stepped inside and fumbled around the wall for a switch, soon locating one and flipping it. The entire place was now flooded with light and they could easily see.

"Wow!" May exclaimed in amazement. The building itself was really a very tall tower with a large, spiralling flight of steps leading all the way to the top. "This is really cool."

"I wonder what's up those steps." Ash grinned. "Hey, want to race to the top?"

"Chu!" Pikachu tugged on the leg of Ash's pants, frowning in disapproval. Just by looking at those steps, Pikachu could tell running frantically up them was a great way to accidentally break one's neck. He had no desire to see them kill themselves.

"Pikachu doesn't seem to think that's a good idea," May pointed out. "Let's just walk anyway. I'm getting tired from running before."

"Eh, okay then." Ash took to the stairs, Pikachu and May following along. The stairs were indeed long and it was a bit of a tiring walk, but regardless of that fact, they kept on going all the way to the very top.

* * *

"My goodness, those children are quite unruly," Xander commented. "They don't always behave like that, do they?"

"It's the sugar." Brock grimaced. He swore that he would never let Ash eat candy ever again. It was clearly not worth the trouble. "I sure didn't expect them to run off like that. Hopefully they aren't going to get into any trouble."

"I dunno, this is Ash we're talking about, and my sister can get pretty crazy at times too," Max pointed out. "With those two forces combined, we may have a small scale disaster on our hands."

"Hopefully they aren't going to go anywhere near that dangerous building close by," said Xander.

Brock and Max turned their alarmed gazes to the Character of the Day. "Dangerous building?" they repeated, sounding horrified.

"Oh yes. Inside that building is a very dangerous Pokémon," Xander told them in a very serious voice, his eyes narrowing. "This Pokémon is so terrifying and it wreaks all kinds of havoc. It gives me the chills just to think about it. I can't even bring myself to say its name."

A heavy silence hung over them. Brock and Max exchanged a glance, both of them thinking the exact same thing. There was something dangerous nearby? In that case, there was a one hundred percent chance that Ash would have discovered it and possibly be looking into it right now. He always did have a nasty habit of stumbling onto dangerous things after all.

"Show us the way," Brock requested in a terse voice. "Right now."

Xander slowly blinked, seeming a bit confused. "Uh, well, we don't know for sure that they-"

"Of course they have!" Max exclaimed, clenching his fists. "This is Ash we're talking about here! You have to take us there before something happens."

Xander stared at their grave and frightened expressions, realising that they were indeed very serious about all of this. He had no choice but to listen to them. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me," he said with a heavy sigh, shaking his head. "Alright, I'll show you the way there. I just hope that you are wrong." The thought of two crazed kids on sugar highs inside that dangerous building was just too terrifying to even contemplate.

* * *

Ash, May and Pikachu now stood before a locked door with no handle. A keypad was fixed to the wall next to it. The problem was of course that neither Ash or May had any idea what the code was to enter the room beyond that door.

"Maybe we could try and guess the code," Ash said thoughtfully, gazing at the buttons.

"That would take forever," May protested, crossing her arms and sighing. "There's no way we would ever get it. Geez, I can't believe we just walked up all those stairs for nothing." It had been a long and exhausting climb, and now she was feeling very tired indeed.

"Wait a minute." Ash's eyes suddenly lit up and he turned around, gazing down at Pikachu with a wide grin. "Oh, Pikachu, would you mind doing a little favour for me?"

Pikachu froze, a drop of sweat forming on his furry head. He knew all too well what it was that Ash wanted him to do, but wouldn't forcing their way into this room be a bad idea? "Chu," he spoke, weakly shaking his head.

Ash knelt in front of Pikachu, his brown eyes turning all wobbly as he clasped his hands. "Please, Pikachu, won't you do this for your bestest friend in the world? If you do this, then I will buy you the biggest bottle of ketchup I can possibly find."

"Piiii..." Pikachu grabbed his head with his little paws, screwing his eyes shut and desperately trying to ignore Ash.

"You know you like ketchup. Remember how deliciously tangy and sweet it is?" Ash continued to speak. "And you can have it all. Think about it... a huge bottle of delicious ketchup, all for you, Pikachu."

"Pikaaaaa!" Pikachu screamed in frustration, releasing a bolt of electricity toward the keypad. The thought of a huge bottle of ketchup had just been to much to resist after all. The keypad fizzled and crackled noisily before exploding. As it did so, the door slid open.

"Alright, we can get in now. Yay!" May cheered happily.

"Good job, Pikachu," Ash said, rubbing the mouse Pokémon's head.

"Pikachu." Pikachu hung his head, sighing deeply. If he didn't get that big bottle of ketchup, then Pikapi was going to be in a lot of trouble.

As they walked into the room, they saw a large tubular construct in the middle. In front of the strange tube was a console. Ash ran over to the console, randomly tapping some keys. As he did so, the monitor's screen flickered to life.

"Ooh, what does it say?" May peered over Ash's shoulder. "Missingno Project, huh?"

"Missingno? I wonder what Missingno is supposed to be," Ash murmured. "It sure sounds interesting." He was currently looking at the desktop, with large words on the desktop background that May had just read out loud. He did some more tapping away on the keyboard, opening up a file at random. "The creature contained within this fortress is the phantom Pokémon, Missingno..."

"They are keeping a Pokémon locked away?" May gasped in shock. "That's so cruel!"

"Yeah, that's just awful." Ash closed the file without bothering to read the rest of it, which was a pretty big mistake on his part. Had he bothered to do so, he might have learned that Missingno was an extremely dangerous Pokémon and it was never to be released from that fortress. Now he believed it was merely an innocent Pokémon held against its will for no good reason and of course he was now going to figure out how to free it. "I've never even heard of Missingno. It must be a really rare Pokémon. Won't Professor Oak be pleased to hear about this?"

"Are you going to let it free?" May asked anxiously. "That poor thing."

"Hold on, I'm just trying to find out how to." Ash randomly flailed at the buttons, not really even sure what he was doing. Out the corner of his eye, he noticed a large red button that had a sign above it saying **Danger. Do not press this button. **he grinned triumphantly. "Aha, this must be it!" Ash slammed his hand down on the button.

A warning box popped up on the monitor. **"You have just executed the release command. Are you sure you want to do this?"**

"Yeah, yeah," Ash mumbled, clicking the button that said yes.

**"This is extremely dangerous and should only be done in an extreme life or death situation. Are you absolutely sure?"**

"Yes," Ash said in an impatient tone, clicking again.

**"You will doom us all! Is this what you really want to do?"**

Ash clicked yes again.

**"You are an idiot. Click yes if you really want to do it."**

Ash resisted the urge to hit the monitor and clicked yes once more.

**"Enter Password."**

"Come on, you stupid computer! Just let us free Missingno already!" May yelled at the computer angrily.

"The password has got to be somewhere," Ash said desperately, looking around. "See if you can find it, May."

May quickly started on a search of the room, rifling through file cabinets and drawers while Ash stared at the computer with a moody expression. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to lock a Pokémon away like this.

"Aha!" May brandished a scrap of paper, hurrying over. "I think I found it. Let's see... the password is... imamoron."

"What kind of password is that?" Ash scowled, tapping it in and hitting enter.

A new message popped up on the computer. **"Congratulations," **it said. **"You have quite possibly brought about the end of the world as we know it. I hope you are happy."**

However, Ash and May weren't looking at the computer. They were watching the tube as the panels started to slide away, revealing another tube inside. This tube was transparent and they could see what was contained within. A shifting, blurred mass that appeared to be shaped like an L was writhing around inside the glass tube. It did not look like any Pokémon that they had ever seen before.

The glass tube itself started to slide up.

* * *

"Can you tell us anything about this Pokémon, Xander?" Max asked as they headed towards the building.

"Ugh, do I have to?" Xander moaned. He saw the disappointed look on Max's face and sighed. "Oh, okay, kid, I'll tell you. It started a few years ago when a team of scientists were working in a laboratory on Cinnabar Island. I happened to be one of these scientists. We were looking into rumours of this strange phenomenon that was said to appear around the shore of Cinnabar Island."

"A strange phenomenon, huh? That sounds interesting," said Brock. "So did you find it?"

"One of our scientists did. He had just been on a trip to Viridian City, but flew back in time for another search," Xander said. "We weren't expecting to find anything this time and we were just hanging around, listening to the scientist talk about some crazy coffee obsessed man who wanted to show him how to catch a Pokémon. Then, all of a sudden, this thing appeared." A shudder passed through his body as he recalled the terrifying memory.

"Whoah. What happened next?" Max inquired, his eyes wide with curiousity. "What did this Pokémon look like?"

"Hey, take it easy with the questions. I'll get the whole story out in a minute. Anyway, this thing was terrifying. It didn't even look like a Pokémon for that matter," Xander told them. "More like... well, it's hard to describe. It was normally shaped like an L, but sometimes it had other forms. We made the awful mistake of capturing the Pokémon. It was known as... Missingno. When we captured it, all kinds of strange and scary things started to happen. I don't really want to talk about those things. Even worse, Missingno later escaped from the lab. We managed to recapture it not far from here and ever since, it has been trapped inside that dangerous building where it can't get free and it can't wreak any havoc upon the world."

"Would it be easy to free that Pokémon?" Brock asked nervously.

"Of course not!" Xander exclaimed. "You think we would make it easy? You need to enter a code on the keypad to get into the room and the console has a password on it too. You would need the password in order to free Missingno."

"That's it?" Max chewed his bottom lip. "Is there even anybody there to guard Missingno?"

"Well... I was supposed to be on security watch today, but I got bored." Xander twiddled his fingers sheepishly. "Nothing was happening and I didn't see the harm in leaving the building for a while. Hey, look on the bright side, I saved your friend who was falling from a tree. Besides, how are they going to free Missingno without an access code or a password?"

"You have no idea what Ash is like." Max gulped. "We're doomed."

"Or maybe we're totally wrong and Ash and May never went anywhere near the building," Brock said hopefully.

"Aha, there it is," Xander said suddenly, pointing toward the tall building that Ash and May entered earlier. He froze, his face turning several shades paler. "It looks to me like the door might be open, and I swear that I shut it when I left."

"Ash managed to cross a suspension bridge without it breaking?" Brock gaped. "How in the world did he manage that?"

"There are more important things to worry about right now," Max said dryly.

* * *

"That's Missingno?" Ash stared at the misshapen creature that writhed around frantically. Suddenly, it began to shift shapes. One second, it looked like the skeleton of a Kabutops, then it appeared to be the skeleton of an Aerodactyl, and then it was a strange looking ghost with a creepy grin. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, seeing it revert to the bizarre L shape. "This is supposed to be a Pokémon? It's so weird."

"I'll look it up in the Pokédex." May took out her Pokédex and pointed it at Missingno. The Pokédex responded with a series of garbled noises, then spluttered and died. "Eek! My Pokédex!" she wailed in horror.

Missingno started to go berserk, trashing the entire room. Objects went flying and the console was shattered into lots of little pieces. Ash and May backed away in alarm, surprised by all the wanton destruction that was suddenly going on.

"I think it might be angry," May whimpered.

"Can you blame it? It was being held prisoner in this room." Ash looked up at Missingno. "Hey, Missingno, it's okay now! You're free! You don't have to destroy the room."

Missingno just blasted at them with a Water Gun. They shrieked and ducked as the torrent of water shot over their heads.

"Why is it attacking us?" May pouted. "We were helping it."

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!" Ash may have been trying to help Missingno, but he didn't particularly like it when Pokémon were attacking him.

"Pi... ka... chuuuuu!" Pikachu released a large bolt of electricity at the strangely shaped and bizarre Pokémon. However, it didn't seem to do that much damage to Missingno, as it was still flying around the room and trashing things. Suddenly, it dived for the open door and slipped through, leaving them alone in the room.

"You know, this doesn't look good," May spoke faintly. "Maybe we did something wrong."

"We've got to go after it. Let's go!" Ash ran out of the room with Pikachu. May hurried after him and they tore down the stairs after Missingno, who appeared to have simply flown down rather than take the stairs, as it was now at the bottom of the tower and dashing to the door.

* * *

"OH MY GOD!" Xander screamed at the top of his voice, clutching his head in terror as he saw the dreaded abomination come out the door. "MISSINGNO IS LOOSE!"

"That's Missingno?" Brock stared at the misshapen mass as it started to run along the suspension bridge toward them. "It certainly looks weird."

"We're doomed! Doomed!" Xander fell to his knees, sobbing frantically.

"Wow. I'm getting to see a really rare Pokémon." Max gazed at Missingno in amazement.

Missingno came over the bridge and stopped, looming over them threateningly. Suddenly, a net fell down over it. The net happened to be connected to a green basket, which in turn dangled from a balloon shaped like a Meowth's head. Within the basket stood three certain members of Team Rocket.

"Team Rocket!" Max exclaimed. "What do you think you are doing?"

"That Pokémon is very dangerous!" Brock exclaimed in warning. "You shouldn't be trying to capture it."

Xander threw his head back and laughed, sounding almost maniacal in his distress. "Do you really think that infernal beast can be captured in a primitive net? It's useless! Missingno will destroy us all!"

Jessie, James and Meowth blinked in consternation, then looked at each other and shrugged. They weren't really sure what was going on, so they decided to just deliver their motto instead.

"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie exclaimed.

"Make it double!" James chimed in.

"To protect the world from devastation."

"To unite all people within our nation."

"To denounce the evils of truth and love."

"To extend our reach to the stars above."

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight, fight, fight!"

"Meowth, that's right!" added the feline Pokémon.

"It looks like we've caught a really rare Pokémon today," Jessie said, chuckling. "Won't the boss be pleased?"

"It sure is strange looking," James commented, peering down at the net. "Is that really a Pokémon?"

"Of course it's a Pokémon, you nimrod. Now let's get outta here before those twerps try to stop us!" Meowth ordered.

Missingno did not appreciate the idea of being captured by Team Rocket, which it made perfectly clear by tearing its way through the net. The three Pokémon thieves cried out in horror as Missingno broke free. Its next step was to lunge at the balloon, tearing a very large rip through it. The air started hissing out of the balloon violently and it spiralled away into the sky.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they screamed.

"Whoah. It looks really powerful," Max said, gulping. "I bet it's going to be hard to capture."

"Are you kidding? It took us months to be able to capture that thing and put it away!" Xander sobbed into his hands. "It will take forever to be able to recapture it. What are we going to do?"

"Hey, there's Ash and May," Brock said suddenly, seeing them come out of the building. "Those two have got a lot of explaining to do."

"Hey, guys!" Ash called out, waving his arms as they came running over the bridge. May waved as well. Neither of them was looking particularly guilty about what they had done. They soon reached the others, gasping for breath after running so fast.

"We just freed that Pokémon." May pointed at Missingno.

"Yeah, it was being held captive," Ash explained. "What kind of jerk would lock away a Pokémon like that? I bet it was Team Rocket."

"YOU IDIOTS!" Xander screamed in their faces. Ash and May froze, staring with wide eyes into the face of a very angry man. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA AT ALL WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?!"

"No, what have we done?" Ash asked, blinking innocently.

"You are not a very nice man." May stuck her tongue out at him. "It's not nice to yell at us."

"Yeah, we haven't done anything wrong," Ash agreed. He looked at Missingno, who seemed to just be standing there and watching them for some reason. "Have we?"

"Are you kidding?" Max exclaimed. "Missingno is a very dangerous Pokémon and it shouldn't have been freed."

"According to the Character of the Day here, terrible things will happen now that Missingno is free," Brock said.

"How did you even manage to get in there?" Xander asked angrily.

"Well, see, I just had Pikachu use Thunderbolt on the keypad and it made the door open," Ash explained.

"And the password?" Several veins were bulging on the man's head now.

"It was written down on a piece of paper," May pointed out.

"I knew it shouldn't have been left lying around." Xander clenched a fist. "We've got to stop Missingno before it can do anything."

"No problem, I'll do it!" Ash said confidently, grabbing all of his Poké Balls. "Swellow, Grovyle, Corphish, Torkoal, I choose all of you!" he yelled, flinging the Poké Balls into the air. "And you too, Pikachu."

Swellow, Grovyle, Corphish and Torkoal all appeared, standing before Missingno. Pikachu stood next to them and they all waited for Ash to shout out his commands to them.

"Okay, Pikachu, use Thunderbolt. Swellow, use Aerial Ace. Grovyle, use Bullet Seed. Corphish, use BubbleBeam. Torkoal, use Flamethrower," Ash commanded. Immediately, they unleashed a volley of attacks against Missingno. The combined effort of all those attacks resulted in a large scale explosion that sent Missingno crashing to the ground. It appeared to have been weakened. One more Thunderbolt from Pikachu rendered the strange Pokémon completely still.

"Alright, now's my chance!" Ash exclaimed triumphantly, producing an empty Poké Ball out of nowhere. "Poké Ball... go!" he shouted, flinging the Poké Ball through the air. It hit Missingno and a beam of red light surrounded it, drawing it into the red and white sphere. The ball hit the ground and started to rock back and forth.

Brock, May and Max watched on with nervous expressions, praying that Missingno would stay in the Poké Ball. Xander, however, appeared to be on the verge of passing out.

The Poké Ball then ceased its rocking and was completely still. Missingno had been caught.

"Alright, I did it!" Ash struck a victory pose, grinning and seeming very pleased with himself indeed. "I caught Missingno!"

"Brilliant, Ash!" May clapped enthusiastically. "You did a great job!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Xander yelled, advancing on Ash with a look of pure fury. "Don't you realise you've just made things worse? Missingno must never, ever be kept inside a Poké Ball!" He was so furious that he had a hold of Ash's jacket and was shaking the poor boy.

"Hey, let go of Ash." Brock frowned. "He's not psychic. How was he supposed to know that would make things worse?"

"Gosh, this Xander guy is scary," Max whimpered, hiding behind May. "I don't like him."

Xander dropped Ash in disgust. "The world is doomed... doomed!" He started to laugh maniacally, tearing at his hair like a madman. "Missingno will destroy us all!" With that, he ran screaming off the cliff. The last thing they heard was the sound of splashing far below.

Everyone blinked in stupefaction, wondering if the world had gone crazy. Or maybe it was just that one guy.

"What's that guy's problem?" Ash pouted. "I was only trying to help!" He seemed to almost be on the verge of tears.

"That guy was crazy." May folded her arms. "I mean, he just jumped off a cliff. Only crazy people jump off cliffs."

"So... what should we do now?" Max wondered out loud. "Should we put Missingno back where it was?"

"That would be a little bit difficult." May smiled nervously. "Missingno kind of destroyed everything. Anyway, nothing bad has happened so far. Maybe it's going to be okay after all. Who knows, those scientists might all just have been a bunch of crazy nutcases."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. The idea of one Pokémon being able to make the whole world go haywire is a bit strange. Besides, it's in a Poké Ball now, so it can't do anything," said Max.

"Still, let's just watch out for anything strange," Brock advised. "That guy was pretty scared of Missingno after all."

"Okay, everyone, you did a great job. Now, return!" Ash recalled Grovyle, Swellow, Torkoal and Corphish into their Poké Balls. He walked over to pick up Missingno's Poké Ball, smiling gleefully. "Oh boy, I can't wait to tell Professor Oak about this. Let's hurry to the nearest town so that I can call him."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Wrath of Missingno**

**Wrath of Missingno**

* * *

"That's strange. This town isn't on the map." Brock stared at the map, turning it around and scrutinising it carefully. After a few minutes of walking, they had managed to discover a nearby town which had caught them by surprise.

"Maybe that's an old map," May suggested.

"It's supposed to be the latest edition," Brock pointed out, folding it up. "Max, is the town shown on the PokéNav?"

"Let's see." Max took the PokéNav from his pocket and opened it up. "No, it isn't," he replied. "How odd."

"That means it must be a secret town that nobody knows about and we just happened to stumble upon it. Wow, what a day. I catch an extremely rare Pokémon and then we discover a secret town." Ash started walking into the town. "Okay, let's find the Pokémon Center, if there's one here."

"A secret town?" Max muttered as they followed. "That makes absolutely no sense."

"Get your fried fish here!" a man at a stall called out. "We have delicious fried Magikarp, Goldeen and Seaking!"

"What?" May stopped and rushed over to the stall, looking at the seller with a curious stare. "You sell fried Water Pokémon? Really?"

"Oh yes. They are delicious!" the seller exclaimed enthusiastically. "You should try fried Tentacool sometime, it's lovely. Unfortunately, I just ran out."

Max approached a hotdog vendor, staring at the sign. "Oh? Hotdogs made from Spoink and Grumpig? I've never heard of that before."

"What is with this place?" Brock tore his gaze away from a barbecue selling Tauros and Miltank burgers. "There's something kind of odd about this town."

"No kidding. Everyone seems to like eating Pokémon." Ash shuddered. "Hey, what exactly are we eating all the time anyway? We eat chicken sometimes, yet we never see any real chickens. Why don't we ever see them?"

"Of course we like eating Pokémon!" A very fat man suddenly waddled over, a big grin on his face. "This town is famous for our habit of eating Pokémon. People from all over the world come here to try all sorts of different delicacies made from Pokémon." He looked at Pikachu, who sat on Ash's shoulder, with a fiendish grin. "Pikachu pie is quite a popular dish, you know."

Ash began to pass out from shock and Brock quickly caught him before he could hit the ground. Pikachu jumped to safety on Brock's shoulder, shivering in fear. "What is wrong with you?" the angry Pokémon breeder shouted at the man. "Don't just go around saying things like that!"

"Hey, I was just saying." The man waved a hand airily, not seeming at all ashamed about having traumatised a child to the point of passing out. "Drop by the Hungry Horsea Restaurant sometime. You won't regret it!" Having said that, he waddled off down the street, whistling a cheery tune.

"Crazy lunatic," Brock muttered, shaking his head. "Come on, Ash, pull yourself together."

It took several minutes for Ash to come round. When he did, he found himself lying on a bench with Brock, Max, May and Pikachu all looking down at him concernedly. "Oh, hey, guys," he mumbled. "I had the oddest dream. Somebody said something about Pikachu pie. Can you believe it?"

Brock, May and Max exchanged dubious glances. Apparently Ash was now in firm denial that anybody had ever actually said anything about Pikachu pie to him. They decided it would be better to leave him to his delusions.

"Alright, Ash, shall we go to the Pokémon Center now? You are feeling better, aren't you?" May asked.

"Sure!" Ash got off the bench and Pikachu jumped up to his shoulder. "Let's go then."

At the Pokémon Center, Nurse Joy was on duty and she greeted them with a cheery smile. "Welcome, would you like me to eat..." She froze, then frantically flapped her hands in embarrassment. "I mean, heal your Pokémon?"

Ash, Brock, May and Max stared at her with wide, shocked eyes, their jaws practically hitting the floor.

"I'm so sorry. You see, I'm getting a little peckish right now." Nurse Joy blushed deeply. "I have such a funny story actually. This one time, a girl gave me her Caterpie and I was supposed to make it better. Oh, but I was so hungry that the next thing I knew, I was frying it in a tempura. It tasted so good."

"Tempura?" Max exclaimed incredulously. "You ate _Caterpie tempura_?"

"Can we go to another Pokémon Center?" May whispered. "I don't think I like this place." She now had horrible visions of what would happen if they spent a night here. Supposing that crazy Nurse Joy crept into the room while they slept, stole their Poké Balls and ate the Pokémon inside? It just didn't bear thinking about.

"We'll leave right after I call Professor Oak," Ash whispered back, glancing nervously at Nurse Joy. That pink-haired nurse had to be the scariest one of them all. He would never trust her to take care of his Pokémon. He looked around for the phones and, upon spotting them, hurried over to make a phone call to the Oak Pokémon Laboratory in Pallet Town.

Oak eventually answered the phone after several rings. His hair was unkempt and he wasn't wearing the lab coat that he usually wore. It seemed as if Ash had interrupted something, but of course he had no idea what. "Oh, hello, Ash," Oak said in a slightly irritated voice. "I hope it's important."

"Hi, honey!" Delia popped into view of the phone. Like Oak, she appeared to be in a state of disarray with her shirt on the wrong way around and her hair down. "How are things going?"

"Mom?" Ash blinked. "What are you doing there?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Professor Oak asked, looking exasperated. "We're _screwing_, Ash. We have been _screwing _for years and of course you've never figured it out because you're so..."

"Screwing what?" Ash interrupted. "I don't see a screwdriver anywhere."

"You see what I mean?" the elderly Professor yelled. "I told you not to take drugs when you were pregnant, Delia!"

"Oh, hush, Samuel." Delia suddenly threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his, causing him to fall off the chair and the two to crash to the floor. Poor Ash was subjected to the sound of loud moaning and of course had no idea what was going on. Why would his mother even want to kiss Professor Oak? It was so weird.

"Professor?" Ash asked in a tearful voice. "Professor Oak!"

"What is it?" Professor Oak groaned from the floor.

"I caught a rare Pokémon," Ash spoke. "Don't you want to hear about it?"

"No, tell somebody who cares." Professor Oak sat up to hang up the phone.

Ash stared at the video screen in stunned silence. What had just happened there? He numbly hung up the receiver and turned around, his eyes filling with tears. "Professor Oak is being mean," he said, sniffling loudly.

Brock was still staring at the phone. "Professor Oak is so lucky," he muttered. "Uh, I'm sure he's just having a bad day, Ash."

"But Professor Oak would want to know if Ash got a rare Pokémon," Max protested. "There must be something wrong with him."

"And why was my mom kissing him?" Ash grimaced. "I think there must be something wrong with her too. I mean, he's Professor Oak. It's just gross."

"Things are getting a little weird, aren't they?" May commented. "Maybe it has something to do with Missingno."

"That's ridiculous," Ash protested. "How could Missingno be causing all this? I don't believe it."

"A town full of crazy Pokémon eating people appeared out of nowhere and Professor Oak and your mother was just acting odd on the phone," Brock pointed out. "There is definitely something screwy going on and I'll bet it's because of that Missingno."

"Missingno is causing all of this?" Max spoke in amazement. "Wow. It's pretty cool. Although, a bit scary too."

A little kid came in with a Pidgey and ran over to Nurse Joy. "Nurse Joy, my Pidgey-"

"Oh, thank you!" Nurse Joy snatched the Pidgey from his hands. "I'll be able to have a delicious Pidgey pie for dinner now!"

Ash, Brock, May and Max took that as their cue to quickly leave the Pokémon Center, swearing never to return. In fact, they didn't want to spend a minute longer in that crazy town and ran out of it as fast as they could.

"So, if Missingno is causing all this, what should we do?" Ash asked. "We can't put it back in the lab."

"Hmm. Missingno didn't actually start causing any problems until those scientists disturbed it," Max recalled. "If Missingno had just been left well alone where it was, then everything would have been fine. Supposing we just put it back where it used to be?"

"Umm... so where is that then?" May asked.

"Cinnabar Island," Brock responded.

"Man, that would be quite the trip," Ash complained. He didn't want to go to all the trouble of leaving Hoenn when they still had gym badges and contest ribbons to be collecting in this region. "Isn't there something else we can do?"

Just then, a naked man ran past. May screamed and quickly covered Max's eyes so that he wouldn't have to see the horrifying sight. Her retinas burned, and so did Ash's and Brock's.

"Nakedness for the win!" the man yelled in the distance. "Clothes suck!"

"Forget it," Ash said flatly. "We're going to Cinnabar Island."

* * *

"The world has gone mad," Brock said as they stood around at the harbour, waiting for a ship to come. He looked around the harbour, trying to spot at least one person who wasn't frolicking around in a giant Pokémon costume and making assorted Pokémon noises. "Seriously, what is wrong with these people?"

"Missingno must be driving everyone insane somehow." May watched a person in a Wingull costume run past, flapping their wings frantically as if attempting to fly. "I don't understand why it hasn't worked on us though."

"It's a good thing it hasn't," Brock said. "We saw people hugging trees and walking around on their hands and all kinds of other crazy things that I don't even want to think about."

"And how about that group who tried to get us to join some Cult of Banette?" Max shuddered at the memory. "They were dressed so weird. I was afraid they would kidnap us and drag us back to some scary cave so that they could sacrifice us to a Banette. That's how scary they were."

Eventually, a ship that was due to go to Kanto did arrive and they quickly got on. Fortunately, it seemed like not many people were on the ship and they weren't going to have to deal with too much insanity on the way to Kanto, which was quite a relief. The group had had quite enough of people acting crazy at this point and couldn't wait to get to Cinnabar Island and get rid of Missingno.

They arrived at Kanto in less than a day and made the trip to Pallet Town. Of course, Jessie, James and Meowth followed them the entire way, trying to think up a plan to steal Pikachu that had never been done before. They were so busy trying to think of one that they actually managed to go the whole way without even attacking Ash and company. Now that everyone had got to Pallet Town, Ash decided to pay Professor Oak a visit. Hopefully he wasn't going to be so grouchy this time around.

As the group stood before the door to the Oak Laboratory, Ash knocked on the door. "Hey, Professor Oak! Are you there?" He was about to open the door anyway when it was suddenly opened from the inside. Tracey stood in the doorway, wearing a baggy t-shirt with Professor Oak's face on it.

"Oh my god!" Tracey exclaimed. "I just got some of Professor Oak's hair out of his hairbrush and I added it to my growing Professor Oak collection. Do you want to come in and see my shrine to Professor Oak? I've got over a hundred photos of him! And did I mention I love Professor Oak so much?"

"Oh no. It looks like Tracey's insane too," Brock said with a sigh. "And we'd gone for so long without seeing an insane human being too."

"He is?" Ash frowned and tilted his head. "I can't really see anything different about him."

"You took his hair out of his hairbrush?" Max grimaced. "That's gross!"

"I even collected some of his toenails too," said Tracey.

"Too much information," May said shortly.

"Um, Tracey, is Professor Oak in or not?" Ash inquired, peering around him.

"I wish he was. I'm starting to miss him a bit," Tracey admitted, looking sad. "He left a couple of hours ago to go to your house, Ash. I think he said he was going to have hot, wild, monkey-"

"Tracey!" Brock snapped, cutting him off.

"Monkeys?" Ash repeated, looking blank. "Does Professor Oak want to catch a Mankey or something?"

"Mankey might be quite wild, but Primeape are even wilder, aren't they? Of course, he could be planning to catch one and evolve it," said Max.

"Anyway, Ash, you probably shouldn't bother going to your house for a while," Tracey cautioned. "I think your mom and Professor Oak need their privacy right now."

"Privacy? Why?" Ash looked completely bewildered now. "I don't understand."

"Look, Ash, don't we have more important things to do at the moment?" May asked somewhat impatiently. "Missingno ring a bell?"

"Huh, I guess we could just go to Cinnabar Island now and come back later," Ash said somewhat reluctantly. He had been hoping to go home and enjoy some of his mother's cooking, but May was right. They really did have more important things to do.

Fortunately, there was a ship waiting at the port near Pallet Town which was ready to take passengers to Cinnabar Island and it didn't take them long to get there. Cinnabar Island was oddly quiet for a former vacation spot with few people around. It was a shocking contrast to the Cinnabar Island Ash had formerly been to with Misty and Brock a long time ago.

"Alright, where should we go now?" Ash asked as they walked through a quiet little street. May and Max were too busy looking around at the scenery with avid curiousity to bother answering his question.

"The shore," Brock told him. "I'm pretty sure that's where Xander mentioned seeing Missingno."

"Xander? The crazy guy who jumped off the cliff?" Ash asked. Brock nodded. "Okay then. I just hope this will put everything right." He took Missingno's Poké Ball and gazed at it with a thoughtful expression. "It's hard to believe that just one Pokémon could possibly cause so much chaos and insanity. What is Missingno anyway? I don't think anyone really knows."

Eventually, the group made their way to the shoreline and stood there on the beach, gazing out to sea. It was so tranquil and calm that they were extremely surprised when the peace was suddenly broken by the sound of rotor blades whirling. Immediately, the four of them were surrounded by black helicopters painted with red Rs.

"Are those Team Rocket helicopters?" Ash looked astonished. "What would Team Rocket be doing here?"

"Is it possible that they know about Missingno?" Brock asked worriedly.

"This doesn't look good." May gulped nervously. "These guys are probably more serious than Jessie, James and Meowth."

"Are you kidding? Jessie, James and Meowth are probably the least serious members of Team Rocket ever," Ash stated. "The real Team Rocket is way more threatening than those annoying clowns."

"So this is a pretty bad situation to be in then." Max sighed. "Great."

Team Rocket grunts, clad in black uniform, streamed out of the helicopters and surrounded Ash and co. Then a man in an orange suit, who happened to be Giovanni himself, stepped out of one helicopter and slowly walked toward them.

"Hey, aren't you that guy we saw at-" Ash broke off as Brock's foot slammed down on his. "Ow!"

"He's not supposed to remember, Ash," Brock hissed in his ear.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Ash rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. It sure was a good thing Brock was a fast thinker, unlike him.

"Huh?" May and Max looked at each other in confusion. Of course, neither of them knew about Mewtwo yet and didn't understand what they were going on about.

"I believe that you are currently in possession of an extremely rare Pokémon, Missingno," Giovanni stated, looking levelly at Ash with a threatening stare. "Hand over the Missingno and nobody will have to get hurt. I even flew all the way out here with my grunts. That's how badly I want this Pokémon."

"How did you know?" Ash asked. "Are you psychic or something?"

"Of course not. Somebody told me you had Missingno," Giovanni said. "They believed you were likely to go to Cinnabar Island, and here you are." He chuckled. "Now are you going to hand over that Missingno?"

"Somebody told him?" May frowned. "Now who else knew about Missingno?"

"Apart from the guy who jumped off a cliff?" Max chewed his bottom lip. "I wonder."

"I'll never hand over Missingno to you creeps!" Ash shouted angrily. "Missingno does not deserve to be held captive, especially by you Team Rocket jerks! All it wants is to be free out here where it belongs."

"How predictable." Giovanni sneered. "Now, grunts, attack!"

"Missingno, I choose you!" Ash shouted, throwing Missingno's Poké Ball.

Brock, May and Max gasped at this unexpected action. Up to this point, Ash had never dared to send Missingno out in battle and had kept it inside its Poké Ball the entire time. He knew how dangerous and unpredictable it was, and hadn't wanted to take the risk of making things worse. It was quite risky of him to be using it now and they couldn't understand what he was even thinking. Then again, most people often didn't always know what Ash was thinking, so it wasn't anything new.

The Team Rocket grunts backed away as they saw Missingno, looking shocked and horrified as the abomination loomed over them. Their boss seriously wanted them to capture this freakish looking monstrosity? What could he possibly be thinking?

"Heh, so that is what Missingno looks like? It certainly is frightening. The ideal Pokémon to lead an army to take over the world!" Giovanni declared, sweeping his arms. "Come to think of it, why haven't I actually tried to do that yet? Look at me, I'm supposed to be the head of a crime syndicate, and all I ever seem to do is sit in a chair in my office, stroking a Persian in my lap. How pathetic is that?"

"Uh, okay then..." Ash didn't really care much for his inane rambling. "You have no idea what Missingno is like and I'm going to show you its power. Missingno, give those Team Rocket creeps a taste of your medicine."

Missingno was quite happy to create more insanity. Suddenly, every Team Rocket grunt was wearing a pink tutu.

Giovanni looked around in horror at his grunts. "I don't believe this!" he yelled, shaking a fist. "How dare you disgrace my grunts like this! Grunts, do something!"

Instead of actually doing something useful like sending out their Pokémon or even trying to capture Missingno, the Team Rocket grunts started to dance ballet.

"Stop that dancing!" Giovanni screamed, his face turning red with anger. "I shall fire you all if you don't stop!" He heard Ash, May, Brock and Max laughing and turned around. "This is not funny. You are making a mockery of Team Rocket and I shall not have this!"

"Missingno, show him some more of your tricks." Ash smirked in amusement. This was actually pretty fun.

"I'm a little teapot," Giovanni started to sing, moving his arms to the song. "This is my handle and this is my spout... h-hey! Stop that! If... if... if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!" He screamed over the frantic clapping of his hands.

Ash and his friends were positively rolling about on the ground with laughter now. It was incredibly amusing to see Giovanni making a fool out of himself against his own will.

"Missingno, more!" Ash managed to choke out through his bouts of laughter.

Giovanni started to hoot like a monkey and scratch at his armpits. The Team Rocket grunts were still dancing ballet and were absolutely no help to their boss while he was in distress. Eventually, Giovanni managed to resist Missingno's power. "That's it! Enough! Missingno is far too powerful for us. We must retreat!" He ran back into the helicopter and all the Team Rocket grunts returned to their own helicopters. Moments later, the beach was entirely clear of helicopters and it was peaceful once more.

"Wow, that was awesome!" Max wiped away his tears of laughter. "I'm almost sorry that they had to leave."

"Missingno really can do a lot of crazy stuff. It's too bad you can't keep it, Ash." May grinned.

"Yeah, I suppose so, but Missingno really just wants to return to the sea." Ash recalled Missingno into its Poké Ball and walked toward the shore, releasing the strange Pokémon again. This time, it came out in a beam of blue light rather than red. "Alright, Missingno, you're free to go wherever you want now. I hope you let the world return to normal now because it's a bit annoying when everyone is acting insane. Okay? Goodbye!" He waved at it as it started to disappear out of sight into the sea.

"Well, thank goodness for that. We finally did it," said Brock. "It will be a relief not to see insane people anymore."

"With any luck, nobody will ever try to disturb poor Missingno again," May said. "I've seen enough insanity to last me a lifetime."

"Pika!" Pikachu spoke insistently, miming holding something up and licking at it. He then gave Ash a fierce, demanding look that told him he wanted something badly and wanted it right now.

"Hm? You want ketchup, Pikachu? Oh, that's right. I promised to get you a big bottle of ketchup way back then," Ash recalled.

"Eh, when did you promise that?" Brock asked.

"Oh, when I asked Pikachu to blow up the keypad to get us into the room where Missingno was being held," Ash replied.

"Ash!" Max exclaimed, frowning at him.

"Hey, I was on a sugar high, okay? You can't blame me for anything I did then," Ash protested defensively.

"From now on, I'm going to watch how much candy you eat," Brock stated. "It's far too much trouble for you to be on a sugar high."

"Aww..." Ash pouted. "But I like candy."

"He's got a point though," May said. "We did get a little crazy while we were high on sugar."

"A little?" Max asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Quiet, you!" May pulled a face at him.

Now that peace had been restored, Ash, Brock, May and Max began to walk away from the shore, believing everything to be over. They could now relax and go back to Hoenn without having to worry about Missingno anymore. Except, it wasn't completely over after all. There was still one loose end and that loose end was about to reveal itself.

"Gwahahahahahaha!" Maniacal laughter broke through the silence.

"What was that?" May cried out in alarm as they whirled around to look toward the source of the sound.

A bedraggled man with tattered clothes and unkempt hair stepped out from behind a tree, wearing a demented grin on his face.

"Ah!" Max gasped in shock, pointing frantically at him. "It's that Character of the Day from before! The one who jumped off the cliff!"

"It must have been him who told Team Rocket about Missingno," Brock guessed. "I don't know why though."

"Correct!" Xander smirked. "If anyone could get Missingno back into captivity, it's those people. Unfortunately, the grand scheme failed." He directed a glare toward Ash. "And you even had the nerve to go freeing that phantom Pokémon that we worked so hard to discover and capture too. Now I shall take my revenge on you!" With that, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife, while charging at Ash.

"Yikes!" Ash leaped aside as Xander swiped the knife through the air. "Hey, what are you doing? Why are you even here anyway? We saw you jump off a cliff!"

"I did, but when I survived, I realised I still had a purpose in this world to fulfil." Xander chuckled. "And that purpose is to get rid of you, who ruined everything we worked so hard for!" He lunged at Ash, the knife narrowly missing him as Ash dodged again.

Pikachu decided it was a good time to help his trainer out and let off a fierce Thunderbolt. Xander screamed as the massive electric bolt struck him and collapsed, twitching.

"No... this can't be... I was so close... to getting my revenge..." the deranged man gasped out.

An Officer Jenny came out of nowhere, screeching to a halt on a motorbike. "I heard Team Rocket was here... what's going on?"

"That man just tried to stab Ash," May told Officer Jenny, pointing at Xander who still lay on the ground, moaning in pain.

"Oh my goodness. That's terrible!" Officer Jenny grabbed a pair of handcuffs and walked over to place them on Xander's wrists. "You are under arrest for attempted murder." She angrily dragged him to the motorbike. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. We're all fine," Ash assured her.

"That's good to hear. Take care!" Officer Jenny waved at them as she sped off on the motorbike with the defeated criminal.

Ash and co. then made their way to the harbour and were just about to board a ship headed back for Pallet Town, when all of a sudden Team Rocket crashed down in a mecha out of nowhere. At least it was the incompetent trio this time and not Giovanni with a horde of grunts.

"Prepare for trouble!" Jessie shouted.

"And make it double!" James added.

"Pikachu, use Thunder!"

"Wha-?! Aaaaaaaahhhh!" Jessie, James and Meowth screamed as the electricity surrounded them. Unfortunately for them, they hadn't bothered to shock proof their mecha and now they were regretting it. The mecha exploded noisily and they flew off into the sky, screaming about blasting off yet again.

"I'm getting so tired of bad guys coming out of nowhere and attacking us," Ash moaned. "At least it was only those guys this time." Maybe he had been a little rough on Team Rocket then, but he was getting really sick of bad guys at this point.

Once they had returned to Pallet Town, the group headed straight to Professor Oak's lab and found the elderly professor hard at work. "Oh hello, Ash," he said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Ash quickly explained everything that had been going on. "So, everything is back to normal, right?" he asked nervously. "You aren't going to do, er, any gross stuff with my mom anymore?"

Professor Oak almost jumped out of his chair, his eyes growing wide in shock. "Now who told you about that?" he yelled.

"Huh?" Ash blinked. "What do you mean? You were doing weird stuff on the phone when I talked to you before and... do you not remember the stuff that happened?"

"No!" Professor Oak looked around wildly. "There is nothing going on between your mother and I. Nothing!"

"He's lying, isn't he?" Max whispered to May.

"Absolutely," May whispered back.

"Okay then," Ash said cheerfully, falling for Oak's lies hook, line and sinker. "Where's Tracey? We would like to talk to him."

"Out in the preserve," Oak responded faintly, tugging on his collar and exhaling heavily in relief.

Tracey was indeed out in the reserve, wearing his normal clothes this time around. "Hey, what are you guys doing here?" he asked, looking surprised to see Ash and his friends. "I thought you were in Hoenn."

"It looks like nobody remembers the strange stuff Missingno made them do," Brock said. "That's probably just as well."

"So... Tracey, you don't have a shrine to Professor Oak and collect his hair and toenails and stuff like that?" Ash asked.

Tracey gaped at Ash in astonishment. "What are you on?" he finally asked. "Like I would collect his hair and toenails. I don't have a shrine to him either! Are you crazy or something?"

"Huh. I guess he really is back to normal," Ash said, turning to his friends. "The whole world must be back to normal now that we let Missingno free."

"Ooh, what's a Missingno?" Tracey asked. "Can I sketch it?"

"Sorry, Tracey, we already let it go and it's just too hard to describe," Ash replied. Tracey's face fell in disappointment. "Okay, let's go over to my house now. I'm sure Mom will be willing to cook something great for us. What better way is there to celebrate saving the world again?"

"We'll just leave out the fact you were the one who endangered it in the first place," said Brock, causing Ash to facefault.

"Um... yeah." Ash smiled sheepishly, a bead of sweat dripping down his head.


End file.
